1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cooking tools, more particularly to a cooking pot enclosing a rotatable spherical chamber.
2. Prior Art
Continuous manual stirring of the contents of a cooking pot is often necessary, particularly when stewing or when cooking thick soup with a heavy concentration of solid food. Such stirring activity is required so that heat may be evenly distributed to prevent scorching of the solid food, and to prevent the solid food from sticking to the bottom of the cooking pot. Manual stirring of the contents of the cooking pot, however, is tiring and time consuming. Therefore, there is a need to provide a cooking pot which is capable of stirring or mixing automatically the contents therein.
Other inventions have been developed which attempt to solve the problem of manual stirring. These all include a pot having at least one stirring paddle or blade to keep the food moving, so as to evenly cook the contents, and reduce the chance of burning the food at the bottom of the pot. These automatic stirring blades, however, have certain drawbacks and limitations. One is that a relatively large amount of power is necessary to stir viscous foods, such as stew, thick sauces, or rice. A large motor and gear reduction system are thus requited, which are expensive and cannot be run for any extended period of time when using replaceable or rechargeable, low voltage batteries as a power source.
Typical prior art food stirrers mix food unevenly. The stirring blades may mix food at the blade level, but foods above or below the blade may receive less mixing. The stirring blades tend to push the food around, rather than actually causing food to be mixed. Foods such as rice and vegetables may require a steaming action as well as a stirring action, which prior art food stirrers cannot provide. Another problem with stirring blades is that they have to be perfectly adjusted to a fine clearance with respect to the inside surface of the pot, so that they can wipe its bottom and lower sides. If not, the blades will not stir all of the food at the bottom of the pot, which causes some food to remain stationary and possibly burn.